Jaclyn Diaz MORE Willie B. Smith is on death row for his conviction in the 1991 abduction, robbery, and murder of 22-year-old Sharma Ruth Johnson. Photo by NPR - Alabama Department of Corrections
The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the planned execution of an Alabama death row inmate late Thursday night, after justices upheld a lower court s ruling requiring Willie B. Smith III s personal pastor to be in the chamber with him when he was given the lethal injection.
The decision came down the same night Smith was originally scheduled to be put to death inside of the William C. Holman Correctional Facility.
Supreme Court Stays Execution Of Alabama Inmate Who Requested Pastor’s Presence
By Jaclyn Diaz
February 12, 2021
The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the planned execution of an Alabama death row inmate late Thursday night, after justices upheld a lower court’s ruling requiring Willie B. Smith III’s personal pastor to be in the chamber with him when he was given the lethal injection.
The decision came down the same night Smith was originally scheduled to be put to death inside of the William C. Holman Correctional Facility.
In the ruling, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that Alabama’s Department of Correction’s policy barring clergy members from the execution chamber over security concerns is a burden on Smith’s religious liberties. She said his request is protected under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
Alabama was scheduled to execute death-row prisoner
Willie B. Smith III on February 11, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a federal appeals court injunction barring the execution from going forward unless the state permitted Smith’s pastor to be present to provide him religious comfort in the execution chamber. Alabama then announced that it was calling off the execution.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit had issued the preliminary injunction late in the day on February 10, placing Smith’s scheduled February 11, 2021 execution in doubt. The Supreme Court’s order came amidst renewed charges of religious discrimination in the state’s execution practices.
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